After the success at The Spark and with The Core, Corby, Mashi are re-touring Tales of Birbal to theatres and schools across the country in 2017.

***UPDATE***
The first half of the tour has been a huge success! Thanks to our audiences in Peterborough, Nottingham, Spalding, Louth, Derby, Birmingham, Melton, Oakham, Leicester, London and Cambridge! Make sure you’re following @MashiTheatre on Twitter and on Facebook to see some of their great responses!

Today Becky and Arun were introduced to the group and the children applauded Arun’s clarinet playing however considering how few children played musical instruments in the group it was fantastic to hear the atmospheric music they created as a group (with Arun as conductor, of course!) Some even played music later on in the day with their group’s specific scenes in mind, from eerie, to magic to cricket, they played the full range.

Like Robert Mellors, the Courtier puppets had the chance to bow to a real king…puppet and the processed and bowed with grace after sues puppetry workshop.

We finished the day with a song that is familiar to the facilitators as it is infections, an ear worm if you like, we created a new verse with questions from the children, including is there life on mars? Birbal knows Birbal Knows, why does rain fall from the sky? Birbal knows Birbal knows etc.

Mayflower and Mashi Sharing

We started with a vocal warm up with Becky the groups jumped straight into singing the Akbar and Birbal song and also learnt a new verse. They even added some actions!

In their groups they had continued to devise and extend their scenes, constantly challenging what was possible in the few short hours until the sharing.

Later on huzaifah and zaydan had created and rehearsed some musical accompaniment to their groups scene with they were so happy that they said Arun was EPIC!

The children performed and the younger year groups laughed, voted an appropriate punishment (I think prison won!) and some even sang along to the Akbar and Birbal song.

Whilst capturing some of the children’s thoughts on the three days with Mashi Theatre the word EPIC! was used again.

The school were attentive and laughed whilst watching Akbar and Birbal introduction. The children said they weren’t aware of the stories however when we told a few more a couple of them jumped in with the ‘punch line’ of the tales and on reflection said they had heard the tales in India when they had been on holiday. They were very responsive when it came to exploring Akbar and Birbal through hot seating and also took on the role of Birbal and Akbar.

When it came to creating freeze frames for sections of the stories the groups flew with it, as I was working with the Crows group they flew quite literally from one still image to the next, they worked together and directed each other.

All the groups shared their still images back and then we moved onto developing them.

This was very exciting as we saw the groups potential, again, working mostly with the crows I had the easy task of helping them to shape their ideas to extend the still images into scene, we began to work with soundscapes and movement, and even gave plant pots a voice!

It was just beautiful to see how the children took on the challenge of creating their own Akbar and Birbal story. From a rough outline the previous day to stories which were shared and told by their groups, each participant telling their part and committing to physical/visual clues to help the rather large audience consisting of two classes, teachers and school governors follow the stories:

They shared their puppetry as they processed into the room, played music live

and sang a song written using their questions from Akbar to Birbal

some more feedback from this first part of the project to follow but here is a taster:

Today was full of music, stories and puppets. As it should be! Arun met the group for the first time today and the children responded to the first few improvised tunes on the clarinet with great enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before Arun had them playing their own music, using voices, drums, xylophones, keyboard etc as he orchestrated them through different moods and themes, including the Jungle at night.

We found out even more about the Birbal stories, through some brief history and old comic strip books in which the children thought Birbal looked ‘evil’ because he had a moustache! They listened to more stories then created their own. They invented a Twin for Birbal, a thief, disguising himself as family and a Brahman out in icy waters, staying hopeful by watching the light from the palace.

The final section of the afternoon was the puppet parade as the bowed to an emperor, a clever puppet manipulated by Sue that captured and owned the space to make it a real royal occasion. and moved to some music created by Arun.

We concluded the day with a song full of questions that Akbar could have asked Birbal and had a very catchy chorus!

Today Mashi Theatre enchanted and amused Robert Mellors Primary School with a short introduction to Akbar and Birbal. This wasn’t a fully rehearsed piece, script in hand, a couple of scarves to signify character, however the children were so taken in by the characters that when it came to finding out what they knew/thought about them and the story they couldn’t stop talking, even the usually quiet ones.

We found out even more about Birbal and Akbar as the children asked them questions e. g

Akbar what do you do when people make you sad?

If they have done something wrong, and that is often why people make me sad, I punish them. In many ways it amuses me.

By the time it came to creating their own work from shorter stories, they were up on their feet and although some were tentative, they all shared three still images.

The games really helped to build their confidence and focus, exploring the servant and king relationship and also more focussed concentrated exercises saw them becoming somewhat of an ensemble, quite magical for primary school year 5’s.

Each group approached extending the tableaus into scenes differently, from the beginnings of movement ideas to text. As they developed their scenes modern references began to creep in; mobile phones and theft of wallets, which supports the relevance of the themes in these ancient stories in today’s context.

A highlight of the day was making the Ragisthani puppets (Kathputli puppets). Each child made a puppet and took it on a parade through the space, moving to music that evoked a real sense of occasion.

Planning for research and development is exciting as there isn’t one definite direction or question. We have a chance to explore and play with ideas as the children might do in order to plan something to inspire them and ignite their curiosity about the Birbal stories.

We were inspired by games, questions, music and a cheeky puppet.

Here are some thoughts and questions and an example of a game we played;

What kind of person is Birbal?

Witty, fool, prankster, commedia, briar rabbit, merlin

Sure of himsel

Has confidence in his ability to change things for the good

A father

Does Birbal ever get frustrated with the relationship between him and Akbar?

He doesn’t have anything to lose

Everyone listens to him

Perhaps gets frustrated with the other courtiers

Why does Birbal stay with Akbar?

In some ways he is in control;

wit

intelligence

Akbar is illiterate so Birbal is needed

Is Akbar a good King?

He seeks council

What does Birbal get out of it?

Money

Celebrity

Power

Control

WHAT WE KNOW

Based on real characters

Akbar:

Mogal/Mughal King (a member of the Muslim dynasty that ruled until 1857)

14 years older than Birbal

Illiterate

Brotherly relationship with Birbal

No one else would challenge the king except Birbal

Birbal:

Hindu

Wise? (or just listened to?)

People go to him

Celebrity/well known

Prankster- helps people to see their error of their ways through humour